“Hey Zac, why don’t you and Ike come over. Y’know just to hang out and talk about tour a little.” I suggested to Zac, whom I was talking to on the phone.
“Yeah, I’m sure Ike would like to.” He said.
“Well what about you?” I asked.
“Of course I’ll come over. You don’t even have to ask.” He laughed. “We’ll be over in like, half hour, forty minutes ok?”
“Sounds good.” I smiled. “See you in a bit. Bye.” And I hung up.
~Zac’s P.O.V.~
I hung up the phone and went downstairs to where Ike was playing with Mackie. “Hey Ike! Tay just invited us over…wanna go?” I asked as I bounded down the stairs.
“Sure.” He looked back at Mackie. “Mac, I have to go. I’ll be back later. The girls should be home before us. I’m sure they’ll play with you.” He said as he got up and grabbed his keys. “Ok Zac let’s go.” We got into Ike’s car and headed towards downtown.
“Y’know he said he wanted to talk about tour. I wonder what about.” I said, thinking.
“Who knows with Taylor. He can always find SOMETHING to discuss.” Was Isaac’s reply and we all know he was right. We were right on time, thirty-five minutes after we left our house we were knocking on Taylor’s door.
~Taylor’s P.O.V.~
“Come in!” I yelled from the kitchen. They walked in and both hugged me. “Are you thirsty?” I asked with my head in the fridge.
“Sure.” They said and I grabbed three Dr. Peppers. “So Taylor, what was this about you wanting to talk about the tour?” Isaac asked.
“Well I just thought we should figure out when exactly we should start so we could tell the fans the schedule.” I said as we went out onto the balcony.
“Taylor, it’s only March 8th, I thought we were thinking more of mid-April.” Isaac said sitting down on one of mine and Amy’s patio chairs.
“Yeah, but y’know how our fans like planning ahead. And I’m sure we could stand to do a few interviews.” Zac said.
“I was thinking tour could go till late July, early August but we’d stay mostly in the US and Europe. Asian fans would just be too rough for Amy right now. Need I mention Jakarta?” I said leaning against the balcony railing.
“Yeah I know what you mean.” Ike said. Zac nodded while drinking his pop.
“I’d like to just hit major cities and stay like 3 or 4 days in each so Amy can rest. She’ll be four months along when we start and seven when we finish.”
“Man, she’ll be huge!!” Ike exclaimed.
I shot Ike a look. “Shut up.” I said quickly. “She’ll be beautiful.” I said softly. Zac put his hand up to tell Ike to back off.
“So…let’s see…we’ll start say April 15th and go till about August 11th. Sound good?” Zac asked changing the subject. We all nodded our approval. “We’ll have to tell Dad tonight.”
“Wait. What cities are we gonna go to?” Isaac asked suddenly realizing we were planning a tour but didn’t know where we were going.
I laughed. “Ike, we all know that the record company takes care of that.” He looked embarrassed for forgetting. “All I know is that I want to do the states and Canada first then Europe but have Minneapolis and Tulsa right before the end. Have them like the last two dates.”
“Shouldn’t we do Europe first?” Zac asked. “I mean won’t it seem a little odd to do the states then Europe then two cities in the states?”
“No, that’s how we always do it. We need a change. Besides everyone knows that Beth and Amy are from Minnesota and it would be just obvious why Tulsa would be last.” I explained.
“I suppose so. Alright then it’s settled.” Isaac said with a nod.
“So…how are things at home?” I asked, trying to make it seem that I didn’t really care. Truth was I missed being home so much it was unreal.
“It’s ok. Everyone missed you, a lot. Especially Mac and Mom. We really wish you’d come back.” Zac said, his sentence just above a whisper by the time he ended it. You could see the guilt buried deep in his eyes, the knowing that it was him that pushed me out of that house. It hurt me to see him like that but I couldn’t go back. I just couldn’t.
“I know. I miss being home too. But it’s nice being out on my own.” I said. “How about you and the girls? How are things there?” I asked, not wanting to talk about me not being home anymore.
Zac’s eyes lit up at the mere mention of the girls. Well, of his girl anyway. “SO much better Tay you don’t even know. I love her so much it unreal.”
I smiled brightly and turned to Ike. “Beth and I kinda lost touch awhile ago but we talked it out and things are fine.” He explained. I nodded.
“That’s great to hear. I’m really happy for you.”
“What about you and Amy Lee?” Isaac asked.
I looked down and came to the realization that I didn’t know. I didn’t know if things were ok. “I…I…don’t…know. I mean…we haven’t had that much…time together yet. But I think…it’ll be ok after awhile. I’m hoping it will.” I said softly.
“I’m sure it will be Tay, don’t worry yourself about it.” Zac said. “I mean it’s so obvious she loves you more than anything in the world.”
“And vise versa.” Ike added.
“Yeah I know.” I said then paused for a minute. “I wonder when the girls are coming home.”
“Actually I think they were heading back to our house after shopping.” Zac said.
“Really? Then maybe we should go back there and talk to Dad before they get there. To get it out of the way y’know?” I said. So we decided to go home to talk to dad, hoping to get everything squared away so we wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.
~My P.O.V.~
“Hey, where are the guys?” I asked as we walked in the door.
“They’re all downstairs talking to your dad about tour.” Mom said, never looking up from her book.
“Oh no.” I said quietly looking over at the girls. “We have to go talk to them about us staying back.” I said as I took their hands and led them downstairs. I knew we were going to piss them off. It was just a known fact that we did NOT disturb them when they were talking business. “Guys we have to talk to you!” I yelled as we quickly made our way down the stairs.
“Amy!! We’re BUSY!!” Zac yelled. Shit I pissed him off…
“Yeah we know. But we have to talk to you about tour before you talk any more.” I said quickly as we reached the bottom of the stairs. All of them looked extremely confused. But I think Taylor saw the urgency in my face.
He patted his lap and said. “Baby, come here, what’s wrong? What are you talking about?” I made my way over to him slowly. I was almost afraid of what his reaction was going to be when we told him. I sat down on his lap and he quickly wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck.
“You’re talking about tour right?” Care asked.
“Well yeah.” Zac said, even more confused. Care and Beth also sat down.
“Well we need to talk to you about it.” Beth said.
“What about it?” Isaac asked. Did I mention they hate to be interrupted when working? Taylor wasn’t really minding though. He was still snuggling into my neck.
It took us awhile before any of us said anything. And I hated knowing I was going to be the one to say it. “Umm…we don’t want to go.” I felt Taylor freeze. I turned to look at him and he looked close to tears. I looked around and saw the others in shock. I wanted to break down and cry right then.
“W-w-why not?” Taylor asked quietly.
“We just need some time alone and with each other. Just the girls y’know?” Care said. Taylor’s eyes were so hallow, so lonely, so scared.
“But we’d like to join you. Like around early July.” I said looking Taylor in the eyes, my arms wrapped around his neck, still sitting in his lap.
“But…nevermind.” Taylor started.
“Honey, babe, I love you. But we just need some time with each other.” I explained. “Please understand.”
“I do. It’s just that if you don’t come with I’ll miss more of your pregnancy.” He said, his eyes downcast. I felt my heart swell with joy. They way he’d been happy about this from the beginning meant so much to me. I took his face in my hands and brought his eyes to mine.
“I’ll be fine.”
“We’ll take care of her.” Beth said as she and Care came and placed their hands on my shoulders. I smiled back at them. Taylor looked up at them.
“Promise?” He asked.
“We swear.” They answered simultaneously.
“What are you going to do instead?” We all turned our heads to Dad who had remained silent until just now. He had just been listening in until the time was right to say something.
“Well we thought we’d stay home until mid May then we were going to go camping up in New Hampshire.” Care said.
“Then you could fly to New Hampshire, spend like three days with us then we’d go on tour with you.” I said looking back at Taylor.
“Ok, sounds good.” Ike said. Sensing that the conversation was over we all began to leave the basement.
“Are you staying for supper?” Dad asked.
“No, I think we’ll go home. It’s her first night home y’know.” Taylor said getting up and taking my hand.
“Are you coming to Care’s party?” Zac asked as me and Taylor made our way to the stairs. I stopped and turned around.
“Of course, when is it?”
“The 11th, at four.” Care said. I smiled brightly.
“I’m so there.” I felt Taylor slightly pull on my hand so I turned to follow him upstairs. “Love you!!” I called over my shoulder. I heard them call their I love you’s back. The ride home was uneventful, neither of us saying much of anything. Until we got to the apartment.
“Why don’t you want to be with me?” Taylor asked as he hung up his coat.
“Tay, hun…” I said as I walked towards him. “It’s not that I don’t want to be with you. It’s just that I’ve seemed to have lost my connection with the girls and I need it back.”
“What about OUR connection?” He asked selfishly.
I came to wrap my arms around his shoulders. To my surprise his hands did not find their way to my waist. “Taylor, we’ll be fine. We ARE fine.” I said leaning up to brush my lips against his. “I love you.”
“Yeah I know.” He said emotionlessly. “But I’m going to miss you.” The response was not the one I was looking for.
“I’ll miss you too.” I said as I kissed him back. “But you’ll be fine. You’ll be too busy playing, meeting fans, and having fun to miss me TOO much.” I smiled.
He smiled back as his arms finally wrapped around me. “I’ll call you everyday.” He whispered softly in my ear.
“You better.” I said quietly. “I love you.” I said in hopes of getting a better response than the previous “Yeah I know”
“I love you too.” He said with a hug. “I love you more than anything.” I looked up into his intensely blue eyes and kissed him passionately. He returned it immediately, holding me close to his chest, reaching a hand up to run his fingers through my hair. I kissed him harder and he led me to our room.
I swiftly discarded our shirts and laid down on our bed. He followed quickly, straddling me. He met me with hungry kisses and eager hands. I let him have me…any way he wanted for I needed it too. I needed to feel him against me, and in me, making me call out his name, I needed it all. After what almost seemed like days of love making he just held me in his arms against his sweaty chest, whispering his love and obsession to me. I melted.